Client work in figures, any information?

[Daikrys]

Hey Guys,

 

im going to write a business plan and have fully filled the income possibilitys from licensing to rev-share, but i lag information for client work.

 

tried to melk Rich for some informations but dont got an email back yet

 

if someone knows some figures for client work it would be really nice if you could share this with me.

i know there are no exact numbers for every month but it could still be a minimum-maximum range (like in licensing with non-exlcusive 400$-1000$).

 

as for my plan i would need something like:

- projects normal duration

- possible projects per month

- payment per project/duration

- possible earnings per month

 

thanks in advance, any information will be helpful

[rich]

I'm a bit reluctant to give out figures when it comes to client work, as there are many more factors at play than simply how long it takes to make the game. So feedback though:

 

Normal project duration

 

Depends on the client! Even the most simple of games I find take at least 1 to 2 months. This is when you factor in nailing down requirements, rounds of feedback, amends, meetings, calls, sign-off, etc. The difference is that unlike sponsor games the game isn't finished when you're happy with it, it's finished when they are.

 

Projects per month

 

Be very careful here. I stupidly took on too much work earlier this year and I'm still paying the price for it. I've upset a few clients in the process by not meeting deadlines. It's not that I'm not working hard enough, honestly I put in around 16 hours a day, it's just that when you say "yes" to too many things, all at once, there is literally only so much you can get done. It's perfectly reasonable to have more than one project on the go just be really careful and never under-estimate the time it will take to MANAGE the projects, as well as do the coding.

 

Payment per project

 

Again it depends on the client and the work. Some have fixed budgets, some use you on a pay-by-day rate. Some will pay based on milestones, some on delivery. There's no hard and fast rule. I've worked on projects ranging from $1000 to $65,000, and as you can imagine the way payment was handled was vastly different between the two.

 

Earnings per month

 

It depends how many contacts you've got. Contacts are everything in this business. You may get a bit of work via cold calling, but if you don't already have a network of potential clients to get work from then I would absolutely not start your business until you have. You know that old saying: "it's not what you know, it's who you know" - this is SO true for client work. Once you have a decent portfolio and show it off on your site, and get some traffic and twitter followers, and talk at a few conferences, only then do you start to pick-up clients out of the blue (i.e. they will come to you). Until you're at that point you need to approach them. How much could you earn per month? I don't really know, it depends on a lot of factors, but it should easily be in the order of several thousand $.

 

The only other thing I'll add is that clients will expect to own source code at the end of the project. So if you're a Game Maker user or something it's time to learn JavaScript.

[Daikrys]

thats exactly the stuff i needed so no worries about to many factors as i already considered that there are to many variables

i also worked for some companies and had to deal with deadlines and milestones, also to change something cool cause it was not wanted in the end... (most annoying part imho)

 

for now i will keep making games for licensing but maybe in future client work might be interesting as well. most important thing is that i can show off some options in my business plan which might me bring very close to my financial advancement

 

big thanks from me for taking the time to write down all the stuff

[haden]

There is one question I always wanted to ask Rich about. I noticed that lot's of the games in your portfolio are for the BBC and the art for those games is generally themed to the BBC. Does the BBC gives you all the artwork needed for the game ? or you have an awesome artist who can draw anything you need ??

[ozdy]

There is one question I always wanted to ask Rich about. I noticed that lot's of the games in your portfolio are for the BBC and the art for those games is generally themed to the BBC. Does the BBC gives you all the artwork needed for the game ? or you have an awesome artist who can draw anything you need ??

 

I am interested in contract jobs where art is provided, just finished one - Hooda Stacker . The amount I got wasn't much, but I work very fast with art and direction given

[rich]

There is one question I always wanted to ask Rich about. I noticed that lot's of the games in your portfolio are for the BBC and the art for those games is generally themed to the BBC. Does the BBC gives you all the artwork needed for the game ? or you have an awesome artist who can draw anything you need ??

 

You get given certain brand assets, like characters in fixed poses for example, but on the whole we create the artwork, and yes I have an awesome artist who does that.